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Filming Wrapped, Stage Now Set For The Vineyard Reality Show Debut

Wake up at 6 a.m., head to hair, makeup and wardrobe, and you’re off to the beach.

Sounds like a typical summer on the Vineyard, right?

That was the regular routine for the cast of The Vineyard, a reality show set to premiere on ABC Family on July 23. Billed as a docu-soap, the show follows a group of twenty-somethings coming to terms with the real world and life’s twists and turns. But not to worry — there are also plenty of parties, romantic tangles and the occasional bar fight.

For more than a month the reality show crew set up camp on the Island, working in some cases 20-hour days through persistent rain and clouds to present a dramatized view of an Island summer that will soon be broadcast on national TV. To piece together the show in time for a summer debut, the crew made quick work settling into the Island scene and setting a warm-weather tone. A house was rented in the East Chop section of Oak Bluffs overlooking the water, parties were staged at Island businesses and beaches, and a partnership with the Black Dog was put into motion. By the time the unofficial start to summer arrived on the Fourth of July, filming had wrapped and the cast had dispersed.

Never mind the difficulties of gently shaping reality in the not-yet high season, creator and executive producer David Broome said he couldn’t have asked for a better filming experience.

“We have a really incredible show. We have a show that the Island will feel proud about how they’re being represented,” Mr. Broome said in a phone interview from Los Angeles this week.

This is a “fun, complex, intertwined” series, part soap opera and part documentary, following the stories of 11 cast members, he said. The cast includes four Islanders — Cat Todd, Ben Rossi, Gabby Lapointe and Jackie Lyons — and seven self-described washashores, some of whom were visiting the Island for the first time.

Filming began in early May, when buds on the trees were barely out and a chilly air persisted. Scenic shots were taken at the end of filming in June when the sun was stronger and the leaves fuller. “It was our intention to start a little bit early for what the Vineyard would be like and end before the craziness,” said Mr. Broome. “When it rains and pours on us we embraced it and used it,” he said. “Our cast is going through everything that they’re going through, no matter the temperature.”

The Black Dog Tavern served as home base as summer jobs for the cast, said Mr. Broome. The “compound” was a “movie set” for the crew.

“It’s pretty spectacular and looks incredible from the dock to the store to the tavern,” he said. “We try to be as small a footprint as possible. You maybe saw two or three vans and realized we were a TV show filming there, but only because of the cameras.”

Other businesses also hosted the crew for filmed nights out on the town.

One Monday afternoon Flatbread Company was turned into a rocking club night, manager Tina Miller said. And they were dressed for the part.

“They lit it up like a nightclub and had someone singing,” Ms. Miller said. “Everyone was all dressed up like people from Los Angeles, not people on Martha’s Vineyard.”

The film crew arrived at 1 p.m. and was out by 4 p.m. on the dot, she said. The space was rented for the entire afternoon.

Start times at 6 a.m. followed by 20-hour days were par for the course, Mr. Broome said. Filming would take place at up to eight locations. After a full day of filming, the crew and cast would return to their East Chop rental home and address the latest plot developments.

Mr. Broome said he wanted to get a broad landscape and different locations on the Vineyard, and tried to make as many scenes outdoors as possible.

“It’s so beautiful and incredible, if we can put a conversation or a scene or an activity around the Island, that’s what we did,” he said. “The last episode is shot up at the lighthouse in Aquinnah, and it looks like it belongs on the wide screen.”

“When Ben Rossi, one of our locals, decided to get together with buddies and go fishing, we went on their fishing boat,” Mr. Broome said. “We used everything that makes everything the Vineyard.”

Reality shows are nothing new to Mr. Broome, who also serves as a producer on the Biggest Loser and heads 25/7 Productions, the company producing The Vineyard. But while the show will blur the lines between fiction and reality, Mr. Broome said the show is not contrived. Instead, plot lines are written based on the cast member’s designated character.

“You don’t make a TV show and put the cameras on set and see what happens — that doesn’t happen,” said Mr. Broome. “This person has this conversation with this person about this subject about their lives” — that much you know, he said — “but you don’t know what’s going to come out of their mouth. You’re prodding them along to have a conversation and all of a sudden they decide, no I’m going to do that [instead].”

“We go in and figure out what this person is going through that day and go put them in that location,” he said. “What you don’t know is what they’re going to say.”

For fans of MTV reality shows, which had some of the first docu-soaps on television, think: Laguna Beach and The Hills, Mr. Broome said.

“One of the things that’s going to make this series dramatically different in its look and feel is that it’s going to look very glossy and gorgeous,” he said. “There are no interview bites, which reality shows normally cut to.”

“The drama in those shows is not the drama we’re dealing with here,” he continued. “We have mother-daughter issues, real life meaty issues that are way beyond flings and things.”

The show explores the juxtaposition of the lives of locals who live here year-round with those here just for the summer, “and how they blend together and what’s the difference.”

“One of the things in the first episode is one of our girls is working for the first time at 19 years of age,” Mr. Broome said. “One of our local girls says, I’ve been working since I was 13 because I needed the money. That’s really what I think the audience is going to see, an interesting difference and similarities.”

“But there’s something that grounds them together,” he added.

The show sparked outrage when first announced in February, prompting some to say that filming would overrun the Island and paint Vineyard life with the brush strokes of the MTV hit Jersey Shore. But by the time filming wrapped consensus seemed to have shifted. While the Island buzzed with the latest sighting of the cast members — at a “white party” on the rooftop of the Mansion House, a bonfire on the beach, jumping off docks at the Each Chop Beach Club, or reshooting a scene at the Chowder Company filmed weeks before (for authenticity’s sake, cast members wore the same outfits previously worn) — in all, filming seemed to serve as little more than a curiosity point.

Steamship Authority general manager Wayne Lamson said filming at the Vineyard Haven terminal, where opening scenes were shot, went off without a hitch.

“We were just trying to help out some shots of different vessels, so they were on a boat for a day or two and taking some footage in different scenes,” he said. “We were cooperating as much as we could. I think the exposure is good.”

“As far as I know I didn’t hear of any problems, everything went pretty smoothly,” he added. “There may have been a delay or two, but we didn’t want to interrupt ferry service,” Mr. Lamson said.

Director of marketing for the steamship Kimberlee McHugh accompanied the crew while filming.

Menemsha Texaco owner Marshall Carroll watched the crew film “walk and talk” scenes along the beach and said they, too, went smoothly. “They came when it was quiet and it was enjoyable seeing stuff,” he said. “They timed it well, it wasn’t annoying at all. Sabrina, that took up a lot. This was a lot smaller,” he said, referring to the Harrison Ford film shot on the Island in the mid 1990s.

Peter Martell and the staff of the Wesley Hotel housed crew members during their two-month stint, and Mr. Martell said he welcomed the businesses at the end of spring.

“They came in at a time we were getting clobbered because of cold weather and rain, and it made a difference and helped us to survive the spring,” he said. About 20 crew members stayed at the hotel, he said.

“It was great for the economy, no fuss no muss,” he said. “I like groups like that.”

Pending the success of this season, Mr. Broome is eager to return for another season. And another.

“I hope we’ll be there for 20 seasons, but you just don’t know,” he said. “It’s premature to think about it now. I knew that when I first got there people would be scared about us being there and that once we left, any local officials would feel differently. I’m 1,000 per cent convinced that’s the case.”

“We wanted to really be respectful, make friends and leave there on great terms and hopefully be welcomed back. Now it’s up to us to have a hit show.”

Comments (40)

Hi Tisbury girl
Thanks for your post. I thought I would clarify what a "fake night" in reality television is for you, so you might get a better understanding on how TV production works.
Because locations in either this show or other shows such as the Flatbread are very difficult to "control" during filming, it requires most productions to take over a space. This is mainly due to background noise and music that can't be played while filming- otherwise, you would never hear what's happening when someone speaks.
If you watch any reality show on television, chances are they have taken over a space where they're shooting a club scene such as what we did.
That doesn't mean that anything being said or done during the filming is not real- it very much is, it's just that you can't go to the Flatbread while they're blasting music in pure darkness and film a television show.
That is the reason why we "rent" a location rather than try to film under impossible conditions.
Thanks for your post.
Dave

Wow I'm not an Islander but I have made the Island my twice a year get away for the last 9 years and I'm not impressed with this Non-reality show. They are not letting the Island be what makes it so spectacular.They should have just went on a Hollywood set and filmed there. Staging is staging no matter where it is.Very Very disappointed that the Island is being exploited in such a tacky tacky manner. Good luck to what the affects of this show will have on the Island.

seriously, did they not learn how things get ruined by Jaws, ted K and others (clinton/obama....) just to mention earlier bad publicty?
I used to live on the Vineyard, had my first born there, vacationed there as a child and I wish it was like it was back then before the "bridge incident". I agree with you, Michele. keep it in hollywood!

Hi Lance- thanks for your comments. To clarify, Jackie Lyons is not presented as an islander. Her mom lives in Oak Bluffs and Jackie comes back to help take care of her because of an illness. As far as this "gabby" character, she's a,so not presented as a local although she is a cousin to the Douglass family- they own the Blackdog.
Hope that clears it up for you.
Best
Dave

I think it's ridiculous how you have to keep defending your "show" people need to realize it is just a show!! Being from the Cape some get very up in arms about details of who and where your family is from, if you were born on Cape, how many generations,etc..they do get a lil crazy!! We used to go to Oak Bluffs every summer on our boat, to visit friends, can't wait to check out the show!! It's been years since I've been!! Best of luck

For your information lance Jackie Lyons is an islander. She is one of my very close friends and her parents have had a house in the vineyard since she was born. She was raised there her whole life!!! Just because she doesn't live there right now doesn't matter.

Once we all see their negative and false portrayal of the island, I hope the selectmen will think twice about granting filming permits for additional seasons. It'll get some brief airtime and then die out like Southie Pride and Wicked Single.

We should withhold judgement until we actually see the show. I live on the island and am looking forward to seeing how the Vineyard is portrayed. Let's be positive, people! There's enough negativity in this world already. I think the show will be fine and will probably show MV in a pretty positive light overall.

I thought the crew and cast were very nice, I work across from the Black Dog compound and they all were pleasant enough. There snack van was pretty well stocked too. However.. listening to the cast be told what they are going to say and where to walk just leaves me concerned for the lack of authenticity. The real Vineyard is so much better, too bad they will never be able to show what it is really like here. I don't doubt that they will have fantastic footage, as there is good reason why this island is so sought after.

No judgement here. I don't consider myself and islander by any means but I have been vacationing on the island almost every year since I was a baby. My grandparents own a home and retired there many years ago. I just pray that this show represents all that this amazing Islands embodies. This place is far too special to me and my family and though I'm a bit disturbed by the fact that there doesn't appear to be one person of color (big part of the Island) in the cast I will remain open minded. Please don't disappoint me.

Why does everything have to be such a big, negative deal ALL THE TIME? From the round-about, to the view at Tashmoo, dogs pooping and drama, drama, drama. Always drama on the Vineyard. We all love the MV and want the best for the rock, but can everyone just lighten up? PLEASE?

I am very upset with this. you are not representing the vineyard well at all! you are turning it into everything it's not and ruining everything that is REAL about it. the real Martha's Vineyard is not like this. there are no night clubs. there is no drama and hooking up. there is none of this fake hollywood crap. this is completely wrong and I do NOT like it at all. you are going to ruin the vineyard and I am very very disappointed. when its overrun and completely destroyed, I'm blaming you.

I am keeping my fingers crossed this show gives the Vineyard all the repsect it deserves. I am a 4th generation Islander and love it. The Island has turned into an overrun tourist area loaded with to many politicians. We Islanders love all the it was in the past and hoefully will return to what it once was. I am giving this show a chance and will watch it weekly. Good luck !

You all must be Joking ! How could they use real Islanders most don't even have Teeth ! As they say on Nantucket thats how you tell the difference between Vineyard People & Nantucket Residents ! Now remember I didn't say that it was on a PBS Special on Nantucket !

Well, I promised myself that I would withhold judgment til I saw the show for myself. Having now seen it, I can unequivocally state that this show is painfully, embarrassingly, soul-suckingly bad. I really can not believe how vapid and boring these people are-they all have about as much depth as a kiddie pool. This should not be called The Vineyard, it should be called The Black Dog Infomercial because it is basically a glorified commercial for the brand, and they should have used mannequins to model the clothes because at least the mannequins would have had more personality than these idiots.

Haha, agreed!! I'm not an islander, but I spent every single summer until my college years on the vineyard with my grandmother; she owned a home there. I think it's hilarious that the show features so many people wearing Black Dog t-shirts. Don't they realize that no "authentic islanders" would ever wear one of those?? I realize that some of the kids work there on the show, but still. It's a bit over the top.

I Know Nothing About The Real Vineyard But I Just Have To State My Opinion About This "Show". This Series Is Obviously Staged First Of All And The Show Is Really Fake And Boring. Just So The Show Wouldn't Look Racist You Added Taelyr Who Is The Only "Ethnic" One And She Literally Had Like One Line. Abc Family Is Really Starting To Fall Through The Cracks With These Stupid Shows That They Are Putting On The Air. -.-

I was really looking forward to this show.. Finally watched most of the first episode & it is so boring I can't even get to the end. So very disappointed. I think it would be better if it was just acted out by real actors instead of this half reality half soap. ;(

Personally I think the show is great! My friends and I watch it every Monday night and talk about what we thought of the episode and what we think will happen in the next episode.
I think that everyone who is saying otherwise about the show isn't taking the time to really think about how much time and effort goes in to making a show like 'The Vineyard.' It's not easy by all means! I give the cast and crew props for making such a wonderful series and I hope to see more seasons in the future!

I was really "iffy" about this show when I first saw the commercials. I thought "they're trying to copy laguna beach, the hills, etc", but when I finally saw the first episode, I got hooked.
I admit, I don't like their "acting". I think they need to let loose and not let the filming get to them. They don't seem natural and if anything seemed forced when they're conversing.
I love Luis and Katie. They actually do seem great and normal. I'm not sure if you understand me; overall i love this show! (:

Love love LOVE this show!! Love everything about it! Dont listen to these jerks talking crap. It sounds like the MV locals are just jealous bc some beautiful people moved it and made it look glamorous. Can't wait for Tuesday nights! My new fav show. Im 37 by the way. Been to the vineyard years ago, and this show makes me wanna go back. Just REALLY hoping Katie and Lou get together!

hi dave! the vineyard show is awesome..i thought that it would be boring but i find it addictive..when i first saw the commercial wks before it aired,it looked boring but i gave it a chance when it finally aired.the drame was intense and wanted to know what will happen next..i loved all the characters but 1..NOT LOVING the CAT charecter..she's too mean to everyone but 2 people and she's a bit too feisty..pls try to tone her character down a but and be nice for a change.and i love jonathan and emily couple!! not jackie..they both have the chemistry and they look cute together :) keep up the good work!

I hate "reality" TV and I am hooked on this show. I couldn't care less that they "filmed" the show. Of course they did. It's just good trashy entertainment. The location is beautiful and that is a real enough representation to draw people in. I love the drama. It's good water cooler talk in my office on Wed mornings. Keep it up! Love it!

This show is amazing! Everyone in our office is totally hooked. Yes, some moments in the show are a little forced. But give the cast a break it's their first season doing this. The show is cinematic & beautifully shot! Don't get me started on the soundtrack of each episode...it's SO GOOD!
Why is it going over most peoples head that this is a:
"Docu-Soap" - A genre of reality television in the style of a documentary in which an apparent plot is constructed by intention or editing in order to make programmes in this genre resemble soap operas.
This show is meant to be a drama with the cast playing themselves just like the Hills & Laguana Beach. Everyone keeps talking about how they want it to be more real. Hate to bust everybody's bubble but most of "reality tv" is staged folks, these scenarios have to be staged to push the story along & create a story line. The producers & directors steer the cast in situations so they can weave a story together... this is how it works for most reality tv shows & this makes for good tv. If you didn't have the drama & the glamor from the cast, this would be a boring show about middle aged politicians vacationing on MV. This show is meant to be glossy & picturesque like a magazine. This show is meant to be what every person at some point in their life wanted their summer to be like. Full of fun, sun & romance.
Maratha's Vineyard is beautifully portrayed in the show & its a shame people are being so negative about it. The locals should be happy it's not being represented in a trashy manner like other reality shows like "The Real Housewives" or "The Jersey Shore". Would you rather have your kids watching Snookie & J-Wow looking drunk & sloppy or Katie Tardif & Luis D'Agostino reminding us that feeling you get when you first connect with that significant someone & can't get them out of your head.
People keep saying that the show is overdoing it with Black Dog apparel but in my opinion it's smart marketing. Most clothing companies would die for that exposure. Because of the show there are more people now who are aware of the Black Dog & they correlate & identify that logo with Martha's Vineyard. All publicity is GOOD PUBLICITY! This show is portraying what everyone wishes their summer could be like & in the end this will only better the business for the island.

I understand this is only a show, however Abercrombie & Fitch couldnt be "whiter"! Anyone watching would never know about the wealth of African American history that exist on the island from the Inkwell to the "Gingerbread homes mostly owned by desendents of black servants. How it has today become the hotspot of the east for affluent black yuppies, & families! P.S.... Including the 1st Family

We feel your pain. We had the same reaction when they began filming The Jersey Shore. It was hard to see out of towners come to NJ to and have the country think that they were an accurate representation of the state. People just have to remember that television shows are not a representation of true reality most of the time.
(If it helps, I found this article after flipping through the tv and seeing this beautiful scenery and searching online to see where it was)

Honestly, I am a local on another island (Key West)... And I enjoyed watching the show. We have lots if part Time locals who go back to MV for the summer. The show made me want to go visit even more and I didn't feel it was negative, I don't watch much tv and enjoyed watching this show. I've actually been in 3 shows myself .... On NBC, CBS and FOX.... I understand the production side of things and I don't think they are trying to represent Martha's Vineyard ..... They are representing stories of young adults and it is a summer story. I know you locals of MV are protective of your island, as are we down here in the keys.... Just remember it doesn't make your island look bad, it's entertainment and it's made clear this is a summer program of working at the black Dog and its not trying to represent the face of MV. We still love and respect your island and anyone with their head screws on straight knows there's more to ANY place a show takes place. Including Hollywood...... Which is my second home. It's not just fake people, there's a lot of history there too..... Same with key west.... But everyone comes down here to stereotype us with jimmy buffet and spring break... There's much more to any place. Be thankful someone found a love to your home and chose to film a cool show there!!!!

Just wondering when the show will b back on. Me and my mom love it. Love the sites too. Very good show. If people don't like it simple way to fix that don t watch it. If u don't have something nice to say keep it to yourslef. U watch all these other hollywood shows! Get over it people!